Some ECB officials want to drop commitment to keep tightening, sources say

At Thursday interest-rate meeting, some European Central Bank officials offered to drop their commitment to maintain tightening as inflation is now likely to be lower than expected a few weeks ago, five sources said on Oct. 18th. There was no support for their idea, but it suggests that the debate within the ECB is increasingly shifting from fighting high inflation to reviving sluggish economic growth. At Thursday's meeting, some policymakers said inflation could stabilize at the ECB's 2 percent target several quarters earlier than in the fourth quarter of next year, the sources said. They advocated abandoning a long-standing pledge to keep borrowing costs sufficiently restrictive for as long as necessary.